[paraphrase: Mark Twain . .
. had married and settled down at Buffalo in a house which, as he boyishly
wrote Colonel Church,] a generous father-in-law has built [& ] furnished at the comely figure of $42,000 [paraphrase: and he had bought an
interest in the Buffalo Express, which, he says,] pays me an ample
livelihood, & does it without my having to go near it. I write
sketches for it, & occasional squibs &
editorials—that is all. I don’t go to the office.

1
Frank Luther Mott, who saw the original of this letter, reported that
it was “dated February 9
[1870]” and addressed to William
Conant Church (1836–1917), co-founder and editor of the
Galaxy magazine, and a brevet lieutenant
colonel during the Civil War. Mott believed that William was also
the “Friend Church” whom Clemens addressed in
letters of 22 February 1868, and 11 March, 18 October, and 23
December 1870 (Mott 1957, 364, 366–68). Although
Mott may have been right about the 1868 letter (L2, 200–201), no replies from William are known to
survive. His younger brother, and his co-founder and co-editor,
Francis Pharcellus Church (1839–1906), signed all of the
extant letters to Clemens about his Galaxy
work (26 Apr 70 to 13 June 71, CU-MARK). The evidence, therefore, is that
Clemens wrote exclusively to him during that period. In the present
letter Clemens seems to have replied to an inquiry about his
willingness to write for the Galaxy, perhaps
on an extended or exclusive basis. Within a few weeks he had
virtually agreed to do so: see 11 Mar 70 to
Church.

Provenance:The MS is not known to survive. In 1938, it belonged to William Conant
Church’s son, Willard Church, but he was reported to have
“destroyed most of his father’s papers”
before his death in 1944. In 1952, the remaining Church papers belonged to
Willard’s widow (Bigelow, 249, vii; Mott 1957, 3:361, n. 4).

Emendations and textual notes:

Feb. 9. •
February 9 [1870] [reported, not quoted; the month is
spelled out in the usual catalog style]